Are any of Samsung's new products any good? Why encryption makes you suspicious, How Microsoft and France take on Amazon http://live.twit.tv/

GUEST: Darren KitchenLOWER THIRD URL: hak5.org

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Today's date

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This is 'Tech News Today' for Friday June 21 2013

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Samsung vomited every conceivable device form factor on stage in London during an announcement Thursday. Among the menagerie was the Ativ Q, a hybrid tablet/laptop that can run Windows 8 and Android. There's also the Galaxy NX mirror less camera that runs android, no phone. An ultra book called the Ativ Book 9, both lite and plus models which run Windows 8. Add to that the Ativ Tab 3 Windows tablet, an All-in-one Windows PC called the Ativ One 5. And since they didn't have any extra time they also showed off the previously announced Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, Zoom and Mini phones.

Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information "inadvertently" collected from domestic US communications without a warrant.The Guardian has published in full two documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (known as the Fisa court), signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and stamped 29 July 2009. They detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target "non-US persons" under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance.

In case you forgot, Apple and Samsung are STILL suing each other all around the world. A new ruling from a Tokyo court says that Samsung did infringe on Apple's "bounce-back" patent on earlier models of its phones. What effect will this have on your Galaxy S XYZ Mini whatchamacalit? Pretty much nothing as Samsung already changed its interface to use a blue line instead of the rubber-banding to indicate the end of a page.

Apple's eBook fate is now in a judge's hands. The US Department of Justice and Apple made their closing arguments Thursday in front of Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. Southern District Court of New York in Manhattan. The DoJ brought the case against Apple and five publishers alleging conspiracy to limit price competition and raise prices in the eBook market. The five publishers settled out of court.

Apple's fragmented! But developers need only target the latest operating system. ust 1 percent of Apple's App Store visitors still use a version older than iOS 5, released in October 2011. And only six percent are still using last year's iOS 5, the last version supported by the original 2010 iPad and 2009 iPod touch. Apple also expects that adoption of iOS 7 will follow the rapid pace of previous releases, due in large part to the company's aggressive efforts to upgrade users and to prepare developers for the update. J

The UK Information Commissioner's Office has told Google it has 35 days to delete any data Google mistakenly collected while gathering Street View information or Google will face criminal proceedings. The ICO did not impose any fines on Google. Google said, "Forget you. We're not doing anything." Nah, Google said it plans to continue to cooperate with the agency and will delete the data.

US Representative Zoe Lofgren and Senator Ron Wyden co-authored a column in Wired today introducing "Aaron's Law". The proposed legislation is named after Aaron Swartz, who killed himself in January after facing felony charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Aaron's Law attempts to brin more balance and proportionality to the CFAA and establish that mere breaches of terms of service or employment contracts are not automatic violations of the CFAA.

A Federal Aviation Administration advisory panel weighing whether to ease restrictions on in-flight use of personal technology devices like e-readers has delayed its recommendations by two months until late September, the FAA said on Friday. The delay comes amid reports that the FAA advisers are expected to recommend the agency relax its guidelines and allow passengers to use more personal electronics on flights.

Another new Apple product, another new WiFi issue. Gizmodo reports and Ars Technica passes along that many people in Apple's discussion forums complain that new MacBook Airs often drop their WiFi connection after a few minutes and some require a reboot to reconnect. Other users, including Ars Technica's own staff have experience know trouble. Gizmodo speculates the problem might relate to the new 802.11 ac antennae for WiFi being inside the Air's plastic hinge.

Lenovo quietly introduced a bunch of new hardware. The most interesting is the 10.1-inch Lenovo Miix tablet with keyboard cover running Windows 8 on an Intel Atom processor. It'll cost $500 and Lenovo says you'll get 10 hours of battery life. Lenovo also introduced some additions to its Ideapad S Series and U Series. Prices for those new laptops range from $429 to $899. The devices will launch in July and August.

-New docs details stringent steps to identify US citizens and destroy those records- EXCEPT: Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;- If location is unknown treat as if outside US and non-US person- “In the context of a cryptanalytic effort, maintenance of technical data bases requires retention of all communications that are enciphered or reasonably believed to contain secret meaning, and sufficient duration may consist of any period of time during which encrypted material is subject to, or of use in, cryptanalysis.”- Target: using “specific types of cryptology or steganography” that are “extensively used by individuals associated with a foreign power or foreign territory.”- PGP? Tor?

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It’s no accident Facebook made Instagram’s new videos exactly as long as a television commercial

- max of 15 secs - feels really long. why 15?- earlier this week we heard Facebook delaying video ads to add more features that will be launched "concurrently with video ads," according to AdAge. - Instagram with 15-second videos is right in the sweet spot for Facebook: It’s mobile, it’s video, and at that length, it means that advertisers can drop in their short television spots without even modifying them.

France Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti govt will ban Amazon from discounting books and offering free delivery- Told BFM News: "I'm in favor of ending the possibility of offering both free delivery and a five percent discount. We need a law, so we're going to find a legislative window to introduce one."- France already bans retailers from discounting books more than 5% from publisher's price- Guillaume Husson, spokesman for the SLF book retailers' union claims Amazon must lose money to offer free delivery and the discount- Put this against Apple in court for allegedly conspiring to limit price competition and raise prices in eBook market. Again to stop Amazon from undercutting prices mostly by selling ebooks at $9.99

- annual report published today: HTC said it paid its top executives NT$660.5 million ($21.94 million) in 2012, down 51.4 percent from NT$1.36 billion ($45.18 million) in 2011. As the Taiwanese smartphone maker reduced costs, HTC CEO Peter Chou and president of engineering Fred Lui both saw their total compensation fall below NT$100 million ($3.3 million) for the first time in two years.- exec departures, product delays. HTC First (FB phone) did not impress. samsung spends 10x on marketing - In addition to HTC posting its slimmest profit on record last quarter, sales are down 68 percent and its global smartphone market share is off 76 percent since a peak in the third quarter of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg

- HTC has enlisted actor Robert Downey Jr. for a two-year global marketing deal worth about $12 million to promote the Taiwanese company's smartphone brand, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.- Disney announcing today that Downey has signed onto do Avengers 2 and 3, plus Iron Man films saw Marvel's biggest box office debuts ever.. big name

- The Wall Street Journal reports that MS explored plans to build an Amazon competitor- Internally, it was called "Project Brazil"- MS held talks with retailers and tech companies to create a marketplace with an array of merchants and a unified shipping cart w/ broad shipping options.- MS considered subsidizing goods on the ecommerce service using a portion of advertising dollars merchants spend on Bing or elsewhere- The Journal says MS wanted to offer the marketplace as a part of Windows and related products like the Xbox- An MS spokesperson told the WSJ that, "Project Brazil was an incubation to enable a more direct commerce model between customers and brands and merchants"

Q: MS has Bing Shopping and digital marketplaces, would it have been so crazy to take on Amazon?

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We will narrow this down to one story, put your initials to the left of the story you like best

I was brought to tears of sadness by the apparent defense of Microsoft's mostly on internet connected XBox and their recent 180. He suggested that in the future we would regret the backlash and the 180 MS made.

I don't believe the future it presented was the future we wanted. The form of always on and control over purchases was not an acceptable form. It is a great thing the 180 happened. The best reason why is it gives MS or someone else a chance to develope a different approach. An approach that is acceptable and is the future, a better future.

Don't think of it as a loss, but rather a chance to get it right. Thanks for the show.